bug#31339: 25.3.50; package-list-packages does not provide useful error when gnutls-cli is missing

bug#31339: 25.3.50; package-list-packages does not provide useful error when gnutls-cli is missing

[Eric Hanchrow]

I typed "M-x package-list-packages", and saw complaints about ...

Opening TLS connection to ‘melpa.org’...
Opening TLS connection with ‘gnutls-cli --x509cafile
/etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt -p 443 melpa.org’...failed
Opening TLS connection with ‘gnutls-cli --x509cafile
/etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt -p 443 melpa.org --protocols ssl3’...failed
Opening TLS connection with ‘openssl s_client -connect melpa.org:443
-CAfile /etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt -no_ssl2 -ign_eof’...failed
Opening TLS connection to ‘melpa.org’...failed
Package refresh done
Failed to download ‘melpa’ archive.

I eventually realized that the problem was simply due to my not having a
gnutls-cli executable!  But it took me longer to realize that than it
should have.  OK, I confess; it took me _two years_ to realize that
(seriously).  I'd just assumed that the problem was some subtle certificate
mismatch or something that I'd never understand, and I put up with it.

Would it be possible to emit a message describing _why_ gnutls-cli failed?


In GNU Emacs 25.3.50.1 (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu)
   of 2018-01-26 built on dev-dsk-erichan-2b-i-833ca944.us-west-2.amazon.com
Repository revision: 79bbd51b1893b65626aeffb13ce1784906fc642d
Configured using:
   'configure --without-x'

Configured features:
JPEG SOUND GPM NOTIFY LIBSELINUX LIBXML2 ZLIB

Important settings:
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    value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8
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Major mode: Messages

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Recent messages:
reference to free variable ‘Opening’
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Auto-saving...done
Mark set [3 times]
C-M-y is undefined
Mark set [2 times]
Saving file /local/home/erichan/homedir/.emacs.d/init.el...
Wrote /local/home/erichan/homedir/.emacs.d/init.el
No obsolete buffers; did nothing.
No projects needed to be removed.

Load-path shadows:
/home/erichan/.emacs.d/elpa/let-alist-1.0.5/let-alist hides
/home/erichan/git-repositories/3rd-party/emacs/lisp/emacs-lisp/let-alist

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bug#31339: 25.3.50; package-list-packages does not provide useful error when gnutls-cli is missing

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Eric Hanchrow <eric.hanchrow@gmail.com>
> Date: Wed, 02 May 2018 02:33:39 +0000
> 
> I typed "M-x package-list-packages", and saw complaints about ...
> 
> Opening TLS connection to ‘melpa.org’...
> Opening TLS connection with ‘gnutls-cli --x509cafile
> /etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt -p 443 melpa.org’...failed
> Opening TLS connection with ‘gnutls-cli --x509cafile
> /etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt -p 443 melpa.org --protocols ssl3’...failed
> Opening TLS connection with ‘openssl s_client -connect melpa.org:443
> -CAfile /etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt -no_ssl2 -ign_eof’...failed
> Opening TLS connection to ‘melpa.org’...failed
> Package refresh done
> Failed to download ‘melpa’ archive.
> 
> I eventually realized that the problem was simply due to my not having a
> gnutls-cli executable!  But it took me longer to realize that than it
> should have.  OK, I confess; it took me _two years_ to realize that
> (seriously).  I'd just assumed that the problem was some subtle certificate
> mismatch or something that I'd never understand, and I put up with it.
> 
> Would it be possible to emit a message describing _why_ gnutls-cli failed?

Actually, we deprecated tls.el and gnutls-cli, and we now ask users to
build Emacs with the GnuTLS library, which enables these features
internally.  I don't think investing efforts in improving a deprecated
feature would be a good investment of our resources.

Thanks.

bug#31339: 25.3.50; package-list-packages does not provide useful error when gnutls-cli is missing

[Glenn Morris]

Eli Zaretskii wrote:

> Actually, we deprecated tls.el and gnutls-cli, and we now ask users to
> build Emacs with the GnuTLS library, which enables these features
> internally.

I'm aware that configure now complains if libgnutls is not found.
What was done to deprecate tls.el, which is eg still not marked obsolete?
Were any of the proposals in
http://lists.gnu.org/r/emacs-devel/2016-07/msg00227.html
enacted? Eg it still seems to use ssl3.
Does an end-user who does not compile Emacs themselves receive any
notification about avoiding tls.el?

bug#31339: 25.3.50; package-list-packages does not provide useful error when gnutls-cli is missing

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org> writes:

> Does an end-user who does not compile Emacs themselves receive any
> notification about avoiding tls.el?

Hm...  It's in lisp/obsolete.  Does Emacs have a general method to warn
about requiring files in that directory?

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#31339: 25.3.50; package-list-packages does not provide useful error when gnutls-cli is missing

[Glenn Morris]

Lars Ingebrigtsen wrote:

> Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org> writes:
>
>> Does an end-user who does not compile Emacs themselves receive any
>> notification about avoiding tls.el?
>
> Hm...  It's in lisp/obsolete.  Does Emacs have a general method to warn
> about requiring files in that directory?

Yes.
But the comment you are replying to predates tls.el being in lisp/obsolete.

bug#31339: 25.3.50; package-list-packages does not provide useful error when gnutls-cli is missing

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org> writes:

> Yes.
> But the comment you are replying to predates tls.el being in lisp/obsolete.

Ah, OK.  But then perhaps this bug report can be closed now if that
warning is sufficient?

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#31339: 25.3.50; package-list-packages does not provide useful error when gnutls-cli is missing

[npostavs]

Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org> writes:
>
>> Does an end-user who does not compile Emacs themselves receive any
>> notification about avoiding tls.el?
>
> Hm...  It's in lisp/obsolete.

Note: it wasn't when Glenn posted that.  See Bug#31457 "27.0.50; Move
starttls.el and tls.el to lisp/obsolete/".

> Does Emacs have a general method to warn
> about requiring files in that directory?

Emacs does warn about requiring files from obsolete.  Users loading
tls.el will now get this in *Messages*:

    Package tls is obsolete!

It's not super visible though, opening a connection with tls.el produces
several other messages too, so it looks something like this:

    Opening TLS connection to ‘example.com’...
    Opening TLS connection with ‘gnutls-cli --x509cafile /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt -p 443 example.com’...
    Package tls is obsolete!
    Opening TLS connection with ‘gnutls-cli --x509cafile /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt -p 443 example.com’...done
    Opening TLS connection to ‘example.com’...done

bug#31339: 25.3.50; package-list-packages does not provide useful error when gnutls-cli is missing

[Stefan Kangas]

tags 31339 + wontfix
close 31339
quit

Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org> writes:
>
>> Yes.
>> But the comment you are replying to predates tls.el being in lisp/obsolete.
>
> Ah, OK.  But then perhaps this bug report can be closed now if that
> warning is sufficient?

Agreed, and --

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

> Actually, we deprecated tls.el and gnutls-cli, and we now ask users to
> build Emacs with the GnuTLS library, which enables these features
> internally.  I don't think investing efforts in improving a deprecated
> feature would be a good investment of our resources.

So I'm closing this as wontfix.

Best regards,
Stefan Kangas